Toth, Crystal R (2024) Social Support in Online Mental Health Forums: It Looks Like Social Support but is it Supportive? Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Online mental health forums offer a safe space for individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts and/or behaviours to discuss their personal troubles. Support-seeking related to suicidal ideation is common in these forums, making them rich with offers of social support. While past research on social support has increasingly focused on computer-mediated communication, it has primarily concentrated on the quantity and quality of support rather than its interpretation. Additionally, categorising instances of social support in online interactions has proven challenging. This study aimed to examine how social support is offered and interpreted in an online mental health forum. Employing a coding protocol adapted from Cutrona and Suhr's (1992) Social Support Behaviour Code, offers of support were categorised into five types: emotional, informational, network, esteem, and tangible assistance. A total of 217 instances of social support were identified. Conversation analysis was utilised to examine the interactional conduct among forum-moderators, forum-users, and a user-in-crisis, focusing on the acceptance, rejection, or non-response to support offers. The findings demonstrate that it is possible to categorise offers of social support and that, while support is frequently offered, it is not always accepted by the user-in-crisis, as evidenced by instances of disaffiliation. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of social support in online mental health forums and highlight the need for further examination of the interpretation of social support interactions in online settings.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
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| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Current – Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Wellbeing (1 Jan 2022 -) |
| Supervisors: | Christensen, Steven |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Jan 2026 05:58 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Jan 2026 05:58 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | conversation analysis, online mental health forum, social support, suicidal ideation, user-in-crisis |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1701 Psychology > 170106 Health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5203 Clinical and health psychology > 520304 Health psychology |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/53121 |
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